The great California Gold Rush of 1849 lured fortune seekers from all over the world, about 85,000 in that year alone. While some came by sea, the majority traveled overland by the Oregon or Mormon trails.

Others of these 49ers, as they came to be called, took southern routes through the Southwest following the familiar Santa Fe Trail or the lesser-known route from Fort Smith, Ark., to Santa Fe.

On Feb. 26, 1849, young William H. Chamberlin with five friends departed Lewisberg, Pa., bound for the California gold fields. During the seven-months-long journey, he kept a logbook that contains some interesting notes on his experiences in New Mexico.

The little group reached Fort Smith where they acquired provisions, mules and wagons. By the time they started west, their numbers had grown to 31, other 49ers having joined them for protection.

The route lay across the Indian Territory (modern Oklahoma) and the Texas Panhandle to the eastern limits of New Mexico. Water and game were scarce but wolves, rattlesnakes and toads abundant.

Finally on June 2, just east of the Pecos River, the men joined the main Santa Fe Trail from Missouri. Chamberlin wrote that the Pecos was swift and very cold, being fed by mountain snowmelt. The mules struggled across a ford to the town of San Miguel perched upon the west bank.

It was the first community the Americans had seen since leaving Fort Smith. They were delighted to find mercantile stores, a fandango held in their honor, and fresh mules available at $50. Will Chamberlin attended church, saying that "thousands of swallows were flying and twittering about the adobe hall during service."

Four days later, the rested travelers left for Santa Fe, arriving there June 7. "The first object that attracted our attention as we neared the town was the American stars and stripes floating in the breeze," Chamberlin noted.

"The somber appearance of the town, built entirely of unburnt adobes, inspired us with rather gloomy sensations," he added.

Along the narrow street leading to the Plaza, posted handbills advertised the United States Hotel (also known as La Fonda Americana) "offering comfort, convenience, and good living."

The 49er newcomers lodged there for $1 a day including meals, but found the vaunted hostelry infested with fleas and bedbugs.

After strolling the Plaza, Chamberlin remarked that Santa Fe was a very immoral place. He was referring to the gambling houses operating around the clock, and the nonstop fandangos in which "the faces of all the women were ornamented with cigarettes."

Some of the newly arrived 49ers had run out of money or had lost it at the gaming tables. Now penniless, such fellows had only two options: turn around and go home or ride south 30 miles to the gold placers in the Ortiz Mountains. There they could pan one-to-five dollars worth of gold per day, in hopes of raising enough to continue their journey.

Chamberlin and his companions decided to go on to California from this point, following the so-called Kearny Trail used by Gen. S.W. Kearny and his army in 1846.

For this second stage of their trip, they needed to resupply. Unexpectedly, they found Santa Fe prices very cheap.

That was because the Fort Marcy quartermaster had gambled away $30,000 of Army funds. To make up the loss, he slyly "condemned" government stores as being unfit for use, and instead of throwing them away, sold them to 49ers at low rates, everything being of top quality.

On a sunny morning, the emigrants, as they called themselves, climbed on their saddle mules, and leading pack mules in pace of wagons, headed south.

Three days later they reached Albuquerque, containing 300 residents and "the most cleanly respectable village seen so far in New Mexico." Over the next week, the party passed through a series of small farming villages, purchasing fresh goat's milk at 25 cents a quart and eggs at 35 cents a dozen.

At Tomé, the Rio Grande was swollen and its current swift. Since a ferry was available there, the men decided to cross to the west bank. In reality, the boat was nothing more than the hollowed-out trunk of a large cottonwood, but it got everyone to the far shore safely.

Two days later, the riders filed into Socorro. That stop had about the same population as Albuquerque but appeared to the easterners as "a poor destitute place." It was the last town of any size they would seen in New Mexico.

Continuing down river another 70 miles, the 49er column left the Rio Grande where Gen. Kearny had done so and headed southwest into unsettled country.

Days later, they crossed into the future state of Arizona and eventually reached Los Angeles. From there the weary travelers rode northward to the Fremont gold diggings, journey's end, having covered 2,600 miles since leaving home.

In 1935, New Mexico historian Lansing B. Bloom visited J.V. Chamberlin at his ranch outside Estancia. He was the nephew of William Chamberlin and gave to Bloom a series of 1902 newspaper clippings of the 49er's logbook or diary.

But for that fortunate circumstance, this account might never have come to light.

Historian Marc Simmons is author of numerous books on New Mexico and the Southwest. His column appears Saturdays.